Full scholarships? Not always, although there are lots of those out there.

______________________"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken_____VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Yes, there are full ride scholarships for music. Ugh. I didn't say there aren't any, either. I was trying to point out that there are a LOT of scholarships out there for musicians. I didn't say what percentage of them are full ride scholarships, because I don't know. I did a little basic google searching out there, and I couldn't find statistics that say how much exactly is out there. I can say that at Ball State, where there were 500 music majors, that most of them had some kind of scholarship money. In the ensembles where I performed, there were people who were not music majors that had some music scholarship money. I know there were some of my friends there who were music majors who had a full ride. I know in classes we were told that there is a lot more money out there for kids for music than there is for football. I'm just repeating what I was told.

Before I went to Ball State, I went to a much smaller school, Anderson University. Anderson is a Division III school for football, and they gave no money to their football students to play for them. At that same small school, they gave out all kinds of scholarships for kids to come and play music. Most of the students in my classes had some money--- usually again in the $2000 a year range. A few had much more.

DarkOmen, you talked about Division I schools giving out 70-90 full rides a year to football students, and I'm glad they do! Unfortunately that's still a tiny tiny tiny percentage of students going to college. Ball State gives some full ride scholarships to football players. Let's pretend they give out 100 of 'em. That's being very generous, because I'm sure they don't. They have 25,000 students going to that school. It's tiny. For most of the 58 million students in our K12 school system in the US, that's just a dream--- a lottery ticket. You have to hope that you are born with extraordinary talent, and a system of schooling and parenting around you to recognize and develop that talent over the long haul. When you look at it like that, you realize even more that the biggest determinate in someone's ability to get such a scholarship is luck. Who knows how many untold thousands of kids didn't make it because they didn't know they were good at football (or any other talent, even music!) because of the situation they were born into.

Here's another random thought: how many people are still playing football in their 50s? I believe that answer is pretty close to zero, if not zero. Football is not a lifetime skill like music is. Even an NFL player is done with it by the time they are 40, unless their name is Brett. This doesn't make music necessarily better than football; it merely points out that a musician is at more likely to still be playing music in their 50s than a football player still playing football in their 50s. Just a thought.

Adults who treat it like the end-all-be-all while they live vicariously through children are the problem. Sports can certainly offer hope and opportunity. But, treating it like the primary plan for college is simply stupid.

Anyhoo, not even sure what I'm arguing about. I'm certainly not changing anything. At the end of the day, someone has to be thrown into the gladiator pits for our amusement, why do I care how they got there?

To be part of the NCAA they have maximums and minimums they can and have to give. It's a rule to keep teams fair.

Of course there's a first chair because there has to be one, 3 all county bands any better for you? Point is no particular department is a scholarship gold mine. Most of the people responding were perfectly comfortable dismissing sports all together and you didn't have a problem blowing off Khan's school.

If you're talking about the Division III that's one step below FCS, they have to give out 36 I believe it is scholarships to be a part of the NCAA. And quite frankly there were 5-6 people responding about all this, so you aren't the one that was even pointed at.

The average number of years a player plays in the NFL is around 4 years. With an average of $770,000 - $900,000 for 2009 and an average $1.3 million signing bonus even if you only stick it out for a year or two you've got more then enough money to go in almost any direction you want. I'm just guessing lifelong merits isn't where you want to go anyway.

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What? He was trying to make some silly claim that the probabilities and work/payoff ratio were actually somehow a good bargain. That's all I was commenting on.

What I was doing in that post was pointing out that it *is* a pretty big deal that a single high school has 2 NFL players in a short period of time.

Sports can certainly offer hope and opportunity. But, treating it like the primary plan for college is simply stupid.

I don't think anyone on here said anything about treating it like like that. Not treating it as a viable option if your kid has the size, strength, speed and ability to compete is what is foolish.

Then again, (and I see it every year) if your kid is 5'7, 145lbs and runs a 5.3 and you are banking on a free ride for your kid you are indeed delusional.

______________________"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken_____VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

What? He was trying to make some silly claim that the probabilities and work/payoff ratio were actually somehow a good bargain. That's all I was commenting on.

So hard work, dedication, discipline and working towards a goal (getting a scholarship) are way over rated. I'll go tell my son to give up right now, thanks for the heads up.

What a dumbass.

______________________"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken_____VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.